Broward County Library's Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, The Dianne and Michael Bienes Special Collections and Rare Book Library, and the Florida Center for the Book are pleased to present the tenth annual Florida Artists’ Book Prize exhibition.

The criteria for entering the competition are:

• The entry must be created or published in an edition (i.e., more than one copy), but cannot be a trade edition (i.e., produced commercially by a publishing house for sale nationally or internationally) nor can it be a one-of-a-kind.

• The artist's primary residence must be the State of Florida.

• The book entered in the competition must have been created or published in the calendar year 2006.

• Completed entry forms and a copy of each book must be received in the Bienes Museum by January 12th, 2007.

The prize-winning artists' book becomes the property of the Bienes Museum. All other books entered will be returned after the judging, except those titles selected for inclusion in the Florida Artists' Book Prize Exhibition.

The Florida Artists’ Book Prize was jointly established in 1997 by Broward County Libraries Division’s Bienes Museum of the Modern Book and the Florida Center for the Book. Serving on the jury this tenth year of the competition were: Arthur Jaffe of the Mata and Arthur Jaffe Collection: Books as Aesthetic Objects (Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL); Ruth and Marvin Sackner of the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry (Miami, FL); and Jean Trebbi, retired director of the Florida Center for the Book (Fort Lauderdale, FL).  Serving as facilitators were Eileen McNally, current director of the Florida Center for the Book (Fort Lauderdale, FL); and Jim Findlay, librarian of the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book (Fort Lauderdale, FL).

This year’s prize of $2,000 was awarded to Thomas Brian Virgin (Miami, Florida), for his book: “Right There”. Twenty-five other artists’ books were entered in the competition by eighteen different Florida artists. All of the books selected for the exhibition are shown here in their entirety and a few of them are even shown using moving images. 

The award ceremony, co-sponsored by the Fontaneda Society: Book Collectors of South Florida, the Florida Center for the Book, and the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, will take place in the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book on Thursday, March 15, 2007, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public.

Bienes Museum of the Modern Book
Broward County Main Library, 6th Floor
100 S. Andrews Ave.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301

RSVP, if attending only
954-357-8692

Click here to browse the Bienes Museum 's 2006 Florida Artists' Book Prize Exhibition collection online.